Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gasket according to a seal technique, and a method of manufacturing the same. The gasket according to the present invention is used, for example, as a gasket for a fuel battery, or a general gasket for the other intended use.
Description of the Conventional Art
The gasket for the fuel battery includes various gaskets having various structures such as a rubber only type gasket which is constructed by a gasket single part made of a rubber-like elastic material (a rubber), a separator integrated gasket which is obtained by integrally molding the gasket made of the rubber-like elastic material in a separator, and a GDL integrated gasket which is obtained by integrally molding the gasket made of the rubber-like elastic material in a gas diffusion layer (GDL).
These gaskets have respective characteristics. However, since request for cost reduction is severe in recent years, a rubber only type gasket which can satisfy the request is going to be paid attention.
The rubber only type gasket is structured, for example, as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B.
More specifically, a gasket 11 is formed into a flat surface shape (a flat plate shape) as a whole, and an outer peripheral seal portion 12 for sealing a periphery of a reaction surface of a fuel battery over all the periphery is provided like a frame shape. Further, since it is necessary to partition the reaction surface of the fuel battery and each of manifold portions, an inside seal portion 13 is integrally formed in an inner side of the outer peripheral seal portion 12. A cross sectional shape of the gasket 11 is formed into a circular cross section as shown in FIG. 7B.
However, in the gasket 11 for the fuel battery, there is room for further improvement in the following point.
More specifically, the gasket 11 for the fuel battery is set to a size, for example, about 400 mm×300 mm in an outer shape, and a cross sectional shape (a wire diameter) thereof is on the contrary set to be small (for example, the wire diameter of about 1 mm. Therefore, twist tends to be generated in the gasket 11 single part when being carried or when being stacked, and a handling workability (a handling performance) thereof is not good.
The present invention is made by taking the above point into consideration, and an object of the present invention is to improve a handling workability of a rubber only type gasket.